The American Dust Bowl: We don't usually think of the Great Depression as a famine. However, the agricultural conditions contributed significantly to general economic collapse. What characteristics does the Dust Bowl share with other famines we've studied? Does it deserve to be called a “famine”? What is Steinbeck’s interpretation of the politics behind the dust bowl? What does Steinbeck want us to feel about agricultural failure and the American West?

Reading: Van der Zee, Henri Antony, The hunger winter: occupied Holland, 1944-1945 (U. Nebraska Press, 1998). chap. 1 "Mad Tuesday," chap. 4 "New Terrors," chap. 7-8 "out to the farms," and "Dark December," chap. 12-14, "actions horribles," "The Great Escape," "The Lowest Point," chap. 16-17, "Help at Last," "Bullets and Bombs," chap. 19, "Back for Ten-Days," chap. 22, "Stop at the Line," chap. 24, "Manna from the Skies," and chaps. 29-30, "An Empty Country," and "The Old Things." This is a fair amount, but it is also an easy book to read. Try to get to as many of these excerpts as possible.

Week 10, Thurs. 4/11 – Experience of Hunger

Reading: Choose one of the following reserve books to look at:

Tucker, Todd. The Great Starvation Experiment: Ancel Keys and the Men Who Starved for Science. U of Minnesota Press, 2008.